Written by Contributing Writer, Isaac Welch

The Trump Administration signed into law Executive Order 14252, covertly titled Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful back in March. The order permits collaboration between the Metro Police Department and local agencies, such as the Department of Transportation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Department of Homeland Security, among others, to facilitate the operations of the newly established Safe and Beautiful Task Force. For D.C. residents, this means an increased police presence on federal property throughout the city, including its many parks and on public transportation. This is part of a historic trend that has impacted marginalized communities for decades, and led to an increase in the capital city’s prison population. This thinly veiled initiative is part of a nationwide offensive targeting migrant communities and undocumented citizens and is effectively tearing families apart and disrupting the lives of the working class. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) reports that as of June 1, 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained more than 51,000 individuals since the beginning of the year, with 43% of those individuals having no prior criminal record. In one such case, 18-year-old Marcelo Gomes Da Silva of Milford, Massachusetts, found himself detained by ICE after being pulled over while transporting teammates on his High School Volleyball team. While imprisoned, the teenager was subjected to solitary confinement for five days before his release. Similar occurrences have taken place in Houston, New York, and California, and a study from Harvard Law reports that ICE detention centers have used solitary confinement as punishment against individuals more than 14,000 times in the last six years.

The UDC David A. Clarke School of Law hosted partners and community members in Northwest D.C. back in April for a day-long event named "Stop Solitary!" The gathering focused on discussing the dangers of solitary confinement, its effects on individuals, and its broader societal impact. The event was attended by students of the David A. Clarke School of Law, and workers in adjacent institutions whose concern faces the matters made by mass incarceration and the discriminatory practices that govern the U.S. prison system. The event began with a reception introducing the university partners holding the event, and proceeded through three sessions at different locations on UDC’s campus.

Alongside an academic approach to discussion, the programing intertwined elements in the arts, with live performances, film, and exhibitions from those who have been impacted directly and indirectly by solitary confinement; bringing forth and voicing the humanistic components that are aptly forgotten by the formalities characterizing prison reform as a bureaucratic or political issue, though it is this soft tissue that is most gravely affected. The event began with a theatrical act by Voices Unbarred, a production group comprising formerly incarcerated individuals and those closely affected, who brought levity and realism to the stage in their depiction of a prison cell. A panel discussion followed a documentary screening and workshop where attendees gathered to discuss preventative measures to vanquish the use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons.

Maya Angelou Academy at the Youth Services Center, NE Washington, DC

Those approaching the auditorium holding the panel came to encounter an exhibition of portraiture and written works composed by students at the Maya Angelou Academy at the Youth Services Center in Northeast D.C. Engaging directly with incarcerated youth, the Maya Angelou Academy works to foster an environment that allows adolescents access to healthy rehabilitation while offering opportunities to further their personal development in an academic setting. The exhibition featured original portraits created by students of notable individuals who had been in solitary confinement, along with personal statements that shared their perspectives on the practice.

Art educator Krystale Sanders envisioned the project:

“I tried to incorporate different styles of art for the students,” said Sanders, “realistic type portraits, abstract, surrealist, and then kind of allow them to learn about folks who experienced solitary confinement. We did a little bit of learning and asked a few days' worth of different questions, such as what they think about it in general. How do they feel about women in solitary confinement? How do they feel about young people in solitary confinement? By the end of the third day, it was a little bit exhausting for them, like, ‘why are we still talking about this?’ So, I had to bring it back a couple of times and tell them that you have the opportunity to share your voice at UDC, but you don't know who it will impact, who you might be able to connect with, or who will hear it, read your stories, etc. So that always helped them to stay engaged.”

Showcased in the exhibit were drawings in varying styles created by Angela Davis, Kalif Browder, and Nelson Mandela, among others. These drawings depicted cells and housing quarters, with handwritten statements by the students accompanying their responses to questions they had engaged with in class during earlier weeks. While many of the portraits reference a similar image, the individual pieces exhibit different techniques in their illustrations, with shading, color choices, sizing, and framing all varying across the collection. The display of each of these differences helps characterize the individual behind each creation and, in effect, counteracts much of what jailing and solitary confinement intend to do. An unnamed piece by one of the students in the exhibit says a person in solitary confinement “would feel sad because they have nobody to talk to, nothing to do, and no windows to see out of because the police want to put them away for no reason.” Another declared, “I feel like solitary confinement is not lawful. They’re treating us like animals.”

D.C. affirmed these perspectives of native Cinquan Umar Mohammad, who offered a personal testimony of his experience enduring solitary confinement during the closing panel. Mohammad’s advocacy against solitary confinement described how fundamental human rights are intentionally neglected in a practice that works to deprave the subjected individual and deteriorate their mental stability. As infamously occurred in the case of Kalif Browder, further abuses among these conditions often contribute to life-threatening mental health crises. They are in part responsible for the increasing suicide rate in U.S. prisons. Browder’s story directed nationwide attention to the malpractices on Riker’s Island, yet is just one example of an ongoing phenomenon afflicting millions of individuals in one of more than 1,600 prisons across the United States.

Similar to Browder, who was 16 at the time of his arrest, the young men at the Maya Angelou Academy are at a critical age in their adolescence, and found in an environment where excessive pressures to align with Western expectations for their masculinity can affect their life choices. Thrust into performance, it becomes crucial that these students have access to natural modes of expression and remain connected to their creativity as they endure incarceration.

“I think this type of assignment allowed the kids a space to kind of think about solitary confinement without having to try to be so tough about it.” Said Dalia Belmouloud, another art teacher at the Maya Angelou Academy, “creating art is so personal, and when you're talking about going down to the hole with your homies its like ‘yeah you know, I'll be fine, I can handle it,’ that's the vibe that you give to others, cause you don't wanna look scared, but I think this assignment offered a space for them to take the consequences seriously in their head. I think that many of them saw how their situation could turn into that, and I think it led to good conversations with them.”

In addition to providing an outlet and opportunity for their expressions and original works to be shared, the display of students’ artwork, along with other exhibitions, provided those in the study with a firsthand account of the ongoing issues faced by people in incarceration and their contributions to the efforts made to outlaw solitary confinement. Conversations surrounding prison reform require the ideas and expressions of those directly affected by it, while simultaneously acknowledging the importance of a connection to people living in the free world for the rehabilitation of incarcerated individuals. The Stop Solitary! created a way to integrate this exchange into the UDC’s community, building hope for a better future for D.C.’s youth population, and all members of society who aim to direct their lives toward a positive end.

Isaac Welch is a contributing writer and a Howard University, Cathy Hughes School of Communications graduate. D.C. topics span art and culture, articles published with Genius Media Group, The Washington Informer, D.C. Theatre Arts Magazine, Edney Trice Newswire, The Hilltop, and others.

STOP SOLITARY! Peering Through The Window